Just Deserts
by The Argent Wolf
Summary: An anomaly opens, and a creature incursion happens in the one place Abby never thought she'd go back to, and decides that it's time to face the people who made her who she is. Oneshot. Quite dark.


**Just Deserts**

AN: This is based on something I read on the Primeval Wikia regarding Abby's childhood, and it's something that stuck with me, and I just had to get it wrote. It's quite sad and dark, I have to admit, but it just felt the right way for the situation to be dealt with. Having said that, enjoy.

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><p>It had been a quiet week for anomaly alerts. Not once had the computer that Jess sat in front of, tapping away at the keys all day, made a sound, and that could only be a good thing. It meant that everything was well. Though Becker and Matt were both getting a little edgy with sitting around in the ARC with nothing to do, Connor busied himself as he often did in his laboratory, and Abby? Abby got to spend quality time with the creatures. She had been trying for months to make observations on their behaviour, planning on writing up reports that would in the future help the team to know how to handle certain species, but she had never found time to get to any of it. But now, she had managed to complete about half the menagerie and she'd already learnt a lot. As she finished up the report on the mammoth, she patted it's leg affectionately. Though nowhere near domesticated, and never would be, it was used to Abby being around, so in general left her alone. "Good boy." She muttered, before heading through the doors back into her office area so she could start writing some up. It was nearly five o'clock, time to clock off, and she told herself she could get the rest done in the morning.<p>

Just as she switched on her computer though, alarms began sounding throughout the building, and she looked back to make sure it wasn't her fault, that one of the creatures hadn't got loose, but they were all back behind the glass window, Rex included, so she knew it couldn't be her. Sighing, she grabbed her bag, mobile phone, and detector, and ran through to the central hub where Jess was already tapping away at the computer with complete concentration, sending a team to the anomaly.

"What is it Jess?" She asked, looking around to see that Connor and the others hadn't got there yet."

"An anomaly just opened, with a possible creature incursion, I just intercepted a number of emergency calls reporting an escaped tiger in the area, I've sent some of Becker's men to the scene but—Abby, are you okay?" Jess paused in her spiel as she saw Abby staring up at the computer, looking at the location of the anomaly. "Abby?" She repeated, but Abby just leant in.

"I'm going down with the team." She said, her voice in an almost hoarse whisper. "Don't send the others, I've got it under control."

"Abby, I don't underst—"

"Just trust me on this, I promise, I know what I'm doing." She offered a weak smile to the field co-ordinator, and headed down to the car park to get her car. She kept her comms switched off because she didn't need Jess to be giving her any directions – she knew exactly where she was going.

As Abby sped down the motorway, her focus was completely on the road in front of her. A number of times her mobile blared her ringtone, but she ignored it, letting it go to answerphone, and not once looking down at the phone. She knew it would be Connor. She knew Jess would've told him that she'd hurried off, just out of concern, and he was trying to get to her. He would put two and two together, she knew that. No-one knew her like Connor did.

"_You're such a stupid little girl! Get up! I said get up and fight!"_

Abby sped the car up, going over the speed limit, but she didn't care if she got a ticket. She needed to get there before the military men did. The voice in her head kept speaking, and she bit down on her bottom lip, trying to block it out.

"_Aw, are you crying? I said fucking get up and take it! It's for your own good, Abigail. You're so pathetic, I wish you'd never been born."_

Abby wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes as she turned off the motorway, and begun following the signs to Lowestoft. She hadn't been here for the longest time. She supposed she was meant to call it home, but it was no home for her. The care home she'd spent several months in was more of a home than her parent's house would ever be, even if it was there she'd been brought up. As she drew nearer to the anomaly site, she could see the panic that the creature incursion had caused. The streets were empty, almost eerily silent. There were some emergency vehicles parked around, police and ambulances, some with their backs open with people lying in them, after being attacked. She parked down a side road, and instead of searching in the wood like the police were heading, she turned in the opposite direction. Would the creature be where she was heading? She didn't know, and really, she didn't care. But an anomaly opening so close to her parent's home? It had to be a sign. Something was telling her that she needed to go back. She had nothing to prove to them, but at the same time, she wanted to prove to them that she didn't need them. That Jack didn't need them. That they were both fine without them, even better in fact. She looked down at her engagement ring, fitting snug on her finger. It gave her a boost of confidence to walk towards the house.

She knocked once, then stood on the doorstep, her arms wrapped around her. It was a long while before there was an answer, and then Abby came face to face with her mother. The ten years that had passed since they had last seen each other had clearly had an effect on her mother – she looked older, tired, weaker, but Abby had no sympathy for her. She'd made her choice – her children or her husband, and it wasn't a decision Abby would ever forgive her for. Neither said anything, until there was a voice inside.

"Is that the bloody police again? I already told them, I don't know anything about this fucking tiger, tell them to piss off."

"_Is that all you've got Abigail? You need to learn how to live by my rules, and if you won't? Then you'll face the consequences…"_

"Alright, mum?" Abby said, harshly. Her voice was shaking a little, but she refused to let the tears fall. She'd cried too much over them in the past, and if there was anything her father had taught her, it was to not cry. When people see you cry, they know they've got you. It was the main reason Abby forced herself to be strong so much of the time. Protect your heart, because that way, no one can know how to hurt you.

"…Abigail…" Her mother said, and Abby quickly shook her head.

"Abby. Just Abby. No-one calls me that anymore." She said sharply, and without an invite, she walked into the house. It was different to what she remembered. Though it still smelt the same, of her father's cigarettes and alcohol, the décor was different, and the first door at the top of the stairs that used to be her room? The door was ajar, and she could see that it had been long since converted into a study.

"Well, Alicia? Who is it! Where are you?" His voice came from the other room, as harsh as ever.

"_Do you think we ever really wanted a wimpy little girl? You were a mistake, we should've got rid of you when we had the chance!"_

Abby didn't wait for an introduction from her mother, who was still standing shell-shocked at the door. Instead, she walked straight through to the lounge where her father sat, still in the same chair he always took in front of the TV, and as usual, a glass of whiskey in his hand. _Some things never change, _Abby thought bitterly. He didn't react, not really. He narrowed his eyes, peering at her carefully, before he took a gulp of his whiskey.

"You grew your hair, then." Abby laughed bitterly that that was all he had to say to her.

"Oh I'm so sorry that I cut it, I guess you didn't have anything to pull me along by after I cut it, how inconsiderate of me." Her sarcastic tone was icy cold, because she meant no fun and games by being here. He didn't respond to what she said, just shrugged and refilled his whiskey glass. She stood, not saying anything either, when she heard her mother's footsteps coming in the room.

"Did you want something to drink?" She asked, overly politely, as if speaking to a stranger and not her own daughter. Abby shook her head.

"Don't worry, I won't be staying long. I just wanted—"

"Yes, what did you want? Stupid little girl, you ripped this family apart, you selfish little brat." Her father piped up with. The words knocked Abby again, but she was determined to not let it show, and just blinked.

"By doing what?" As much as she tried though, her voice still came out in a shake. "By showing the school nurse all the bruises on me? By crying to the social worker about how you hit me to make me behave? By letting the police know how drunk you got, and how I was terrified you'd hurt Jack?"

"Abigail, it's nothing to get upset about now, it's long in the past…" Her mother muttered, and Abby turned to look at her, her eyes wide.

"It's not in the past though, is it! I am the person I am because of what he did to me!"

"Abby, listen—"

"No! You listen to me, mum! For once in your life, listen to what I have to say!" Abby was sobbing by now, no longer able to control herself. "He hit you, and you took it, no matter how many times I begged you to get away from him! You told me you loved him and that he didn't mean it! But he did mean it! Every time he got drunk and turned on me, and you sat by and let him! You told the police I made it up! Why else do you think I don't trust anyone? Because you taught me that I can't even trust my own family!"

She heard her father's chair move back, and before she could move, she found herself being shoved into the wall behind her, her father standing in front of her.

"You apologise to your mother, Abigail."

"No." She sneered, glaring at him.

"YOU LISTEN TO ME, YOU LITTLE BITCH!" He spat, his face inches from hers. "YOU COME IN HERE, UPSETTING YOUR MOTHER AFTER ABANDONING HER FOR TEN YEARS, SO YOU APOLOGISE TO HER OR—"

"Or what? Or you're gonna hit me?" Her voice was low, and taunting. "Go on then. Why don't you remind me what a big man you are that you have to hit women? Because you can do whatever the hell you want to me, and it won't matter. Because you're nothing to me anymore, either of you." She swallowed hard, and pushed him back, as hard as she could manage, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "I made sure Jack was okay, I was there for him more than you ever have been, and he's fine. I'm fine. I'm getting married in fact, and if I see either of you anywhere near my wedding, I'll be getting the police involved."

"Abby—" She heard a sniff in her mother's voice, but she didn't respond to it. She heard a growing coming from near the front door, and she swallowed hard, almost afraid to breathe for what it could be.

"I told you, apologise to your mother, or I'll give you something to be sorry for." Her father wasn't giving up though, and approached her again, his hands clenched into fists. "If we want to go, we will be there, because like it or not, Abigail, we were the ones that brought you into this world, we were the ones to raise you for fifteen years, and we would have raised you for much longer if you hadn't had to be an attention seeking little bitch."

"Dad, stop talking." She whispered, trying to find a way to get whatever was near the house away.

"Aww, am I scaring the little baby?" He opened his fist, and slapped Abby hard across the face, and she cried out in pain, clutching her wrist. "Come on! You talk all big but you're still nothing but the pathetic little girl that ran away."

"I mean it, stop it." She said, her voice shaking.

"Stupid, stupid little girl, with her stupid, poxy fiancé. He must be blind if he wants you, Abigail, you're nothing but damaged goods." He mocked, and he grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulling it hard, which caused Abby to scream out in pain, hot tears slipping down her cheeks.

There was a roar, much closer now, which Abby realised as she felt her hair be released from her father's grip, and she fell to the floor, hitting her head hard. Opening her eyes, she saw her parents cowering in a corner as what appeared to be a sabre tooth tiger stood in front of them. Worried, Abby put a hand to her head to check she wasn't bleeding – any scent of blood would be a sure fire way to make her the tiger's next meal.

"Abby, _please_, go and get the police. This…this has to be what escaped the z-zoo…" Her mum's voice was shaking, and Abby was about to reach for her mobile phone, when she stopped.

"It's a Smilodon. Late Pliocene era. Powerful front legs, sharp long canines." She said, as if reading from a text book. It had its back to Abby, and she tried to make as little movement as possible, knowing that it would not be as tamed as Valerie's had been.

"What are you talking about! Abby do something!" Said her mother, but Abby didn't move. She was torn about what was the right thing to do, and what she wanted to do. "Abby, call someone!" Her mother repeated, looking over at her daughter, who instead, was still standing there.

"She won't do anything! What can she possibly do!" Said her father, who grabbed at his whiskey bottle, pulling the top off and shaking it in the direction of the Smilodon.

"NO!" Shouted Abby, but it was too late. The Smilodon, angered by the attack, quickly launched itself at her parents, and she closed her eyes and crouched on the floor, covering her ears so she wouldn't hear the blood-curdling screams.

Another sound filled the room, this one of guns and EMDs, but still she didn't move until there was silence.

"Abby!" She looked up just in time to see Connor launching himself into her arms, and she hugged him back as tightly as possible. Her face was starting to bruise, she could feel it, but she wouldn't cry. She had no reason to. In all honesty, right now she was feeling completely numb.

"Don't even think about going off on your own like that again." Came the familiar tone of Matt, who was walking over to the creature now, pushing it to the side to survey the bodies. He looked over at Abby, who was still clinging onto Connor. "Do you know these people?"

"Yeah." Said Abby, nodding. "My parents." Matt stared at her for a moment, before walking back over to her.

"I'm sorry." He offered, a sympathetic look on his face.

"Don't be." Her voice turned cold again, and she looked over at the bodies for the first time. "I'm not."


End file.
